The term “single-use” in medical devices means that a device or component is discarded as waste after a single usage on a patient, and not used again. Single-use medical devices offer critical benefits for patients and also healthcare providers by eliminating the burden of reprocessing single-use devices (“SUD”), and reducing the risk of infection from potential contaminations. With advances in technology and materials, SUDs are becoming practical both economically and logistically.
Particularly, multi-use devices become contaminated with each use and are typically subjected to a sterilization procedure after each use to eliminate the contamination. Sterilization procedures can be burdensome and are not always 100% effective. Any contaminant remaining on the multi-use device after the sterilization procedure can potentially cause an infection in a patient on whom the multi-use device is subsequently used. In comparison, SUDs are only used during a single procedure on a single patient, and thus generally do not get exposed to contamination during prior usage.
On the other hand, since SUDs are not re-used, the cost of a single-use device cannot be spread across multiple patients. However, recent advances in technology and materials have made SUDs an economically and logistically practical alternative to multi-use medical devices.